FULL STORY: How the KNUST SHS Student Died

Barely 72 hours of the death of a final year KNUST Senior High School School male student, Master Richard Leonard Sam, it has emerged that he died as a result of stomach ulcer, not COVID-19 as earlier speculated.

Per sources close to this portal said Sam - as he was widely called - was a day student but had to go to the boarding house in compliance to President Akufo-Addo'directives for  reopening Senior High Schools amid the COVID-19 period.

On Tuesday, July 7, 2020, Sam started having stomach pains after breakfast. His colleagues supported him by telling him all will be fine but his pains escalated after he had taken lunch.

Some teachers were informed but they came around and stood at a distance away suspecting the boy had contracted coronavirus. By this time, Sammy's father had been contacted on the phone and he said he was 3 hours away.

The students at this time started agitating that the boy should be taken to a health facility. When the teachers remained 'insensitive', they called a taxi and rushed him the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital but the gatekeepers refused them entry on reasons that they have been instructed not to allow students who leave the campus on their own to enter the hospital.

The parent arrived 2 and a half hours and took his son to the hospital but sadly, he died 30 minutes after admission.

Armed police were on Tuesday forced to restore calm on campus after students of the school went on a demonstration to express their displeasure over the incident.

The students accused school authorities of not attending to the sick boy after he complained of a stomach upset during the day.

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The subsequent news of his death sent students on a rampage in the school; resulting in the pelting of stones and damaging of the headmistress’ saloon car.

3 persons have since been interdicted in connection with the death of the student. The first be interdicted is Patricia Asamoah, headmistress of the school. The other two are Owusu Ansah Seth, a Senior Housemaster, and Anthony Awotwe, housemaster of the Densu House, where the deceased student was.

A committee has also been constituted to investigate the circumstances leading to the demise of the 17-year-old.

Deceased boy's Mum speaks

Madam Comfort - mother of the late KNUST SHS student -noted that her son was an ulcer patient and even tried visiting him on Sunday, July 5 but was turned away.

“I was prevented from seeing my child on Sunday, just a day before the incident. The security men at the gate drove me away like chicken,” she alleged in her native language, Asante.

She claimed she had to go back home sad with all that she had brought for the boy because the security men have been given strict instruction not to allow parents on campus as directed by government.

Unfortunately, the boy got sick the following day

SOURCE: Ghana Guardian